MANIFESTO

I am a member of UKIP.

Accountability

Perhaps the most important issue with politics is the accountability of elected officials. In our representative democracy, once elected, politicians are more or less free to do what they like. As a result of this characteristic of government and the commons the public is more impotent to challenge the incompetence of elected officials than is healthy.

In order to fix the issue of elected officials failing to effectively protect the interests of the public, the introduction of a system of direct democracy is the logical step to take. Requiring referenda for certain legislation would ensure that the people have a genuine hand in the legislative process. Which types of legislation should be subject to referenda would need to be carefully decided by parliament.

Money Creation

Currently, the vast majority of money (about 97%) is created by commercial banks by them making loans. The power to create money should be transferred from commercial banks to the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England. With the oversight of parliament and direction from the Treasury this system would make the publically minded execution of money creation possible.

This proposal has been developed by Positive Money and is summarised in a 2016 paper.

Social Justice

Social issues such as the rights of LGBT individuals, gender equality and racism are of course important. However, the primary issue of social justice facing us today is that of child sexual abuse. This is an horrific and wholly unnacceptable crime, which is unfortunately not being tackled with the vigour that it warrants. There are allegations that people in positions of authority who are involved with the practise are thwarting attempts to address the issue.

Climate Change

The postulated threat of major anthropologically driven climate change is an issue which pulls attention away from provable environmental challenges, such as over-usage of pesticides, dangers of GMOs and pollution of the oceans. There is still much debate and scientific exploration to be carried out with regard to the climate patterns of this planet, and it is not in our interest to allow the UN sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to have the last word on the reality of the very complex and not fully understood mechanisms that dictate these patterns.

Immigration

Immigration should be controlled. This is to restrict economic migration and to ensure that we are able to effectively look after our entire population. Economic migrants are by definition not primarily interested in British culture. They are interested in making money. We should be focusing on offering advice and support to countries with weak economies to help them become stronger, rather than allowing in economic migrants, who put downward pressure on wages. In general, we should focus on eradicating poverty amongst our existing population, which means not creating further roadbocks to this end by bringing in too many more people. Sustainability through pragmatism is the best policy on this front.

With regard to cultural issues arising from immigration, the UK is a firmly liberal state and we need to make sure that we don’t start moving backwards, with regard to civil liberties, through the tolerance and implicit protection of certain customs from Middle Eastern and African countries. For example, female genital mutilation (FGM), intolerance of homosexuals and the subjugation of women are issues that are a problem in certain ethnic minority communities. To address these issues, alongside immigration we need to institute a respectful education system to acclimatise those coming from cultures of questionable human rights to the laws and culture of the UK. The police and intelligence services need to be mandated with tackling these issues when they break the law. FGM is a particlarly concerning custom that is widespread within our borders, yet for which there has never been a successful prosecution.

Brexit

I support withdrawal from the EU for the reason that the level of democracy we have achieved has taken centuries to evolve to the stage we are at now; it is a step backwards to devolve so much decision-making power to the undemocratic EU.